What began as a diplomatic dance of contract proposals and casual assurances ended Monday with an awkward handshake between Mayor Will Flanagan and former Fire Chief Paul Ford.

Ironically, on Monday Ford found himself inside Fall River’s main fire station for a training event at the same time Flanagan inked the home-rule petition seeking to restore the fire chief to civil service.

Ford, the only modern-era chief appointed outside of the civil service system, spoke with The Herald News, marking the first time he has commented extensively on the record about the series of events that led him to leave the department where he worked for 28 years, the last 3½ years as chief.

Ford bested 50 applicants in a national search to become fire chief an hour’s drive away in the affluent Boston suburb of Brookline, for similar pay and benefits.

Ford’s departure led to the unorthodox November appointment of Lt. Michael Coogan, union president and close Flanagan ally, to interim fire chief, leapfrogging 25 officers of higher rank. At the time of his appointment, Coogan had not reported for his regular firefighting duties for about six months. Flanagan removed Lt. Michael Coogan as interim fire chief on Dec. 2, just 13 days after appointing him, citing Coogan’s lack of required documentation for his absences. After remaining on paid administrative leave until the end of January, Coogan transitioned to sick leave. He is scheduled to be examined by a Flanagan administration-retained physician on April 11. A Flanagan

administration-led internal investigation into documentation of Coogan’s absences is on hold until the issue of Coogan’s sick leave is resolved.

Ford agreed to be interviewed as part of that internal investigation, but has otherwise remained on the periphery of the Coogan controversy. He maintains — and the mayor agrees — that documentation does not exist to suggest that Flanagan offered him a new contract, nor that the mayor ever fulfilled a contract renewal in writing demonstrating he intended to retain Ford. Ford’s contract stipulated that he needed to document his interest in a contract renewal nine months prior to the contract’s end on Nov. 20, and that the administration needed to respond with its intentions six months prior to the contract’s expiration.

“The only thing you can say they offered me was ‘you’re my guy,’ " Ford allowed.

“Never was a (salary) number or benefits offered to me or that you can have the same salary for the next three years,” Ford said.

Ford was not seeking a pay raise, both he and Flanagan confirmed.

“I didn’t ask for a raise. Why didn’t he (Flanagan) get it done?” he asked. “That’s the million-dollar question.”

From mid-February, when Ford sent his contract renewal request to the mayor in writing, until September, when a few negotiations took place, Ford said he received no written communication from the administration.

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“There was no offer ever in any way,” he said.

Still, the mayor insists he communicated his intentions: “I demonstrated to Paul Ford I absolutely wanted him here,” Flanagan maintained.

“I related to him that he is the Fall River fire chief and we would work on a contract.”

But Ford said he never received that assurance in writing, as required by his contract.

Ford said he told Flanagan he wasn’t comfortable with that lack of commitment to renewing his contract. Flanagan’s response to that, Ford said, was “‘We’re going to get this settled in 30 to 45 days.” That was in July or early August, Ford said.

“I did notify him verbally,” Flanagan said. “I have no documentation that I responded to him in writing.”

On Aug. 4, Ford sent the first of two contract proposals to the Flanagan administration, copies of which he supplied to The Herald News. More than a month later, still not having heard from the Flanagan administration, Ford sent a second, revised proposal to the administration.

In his second proposal, which he sent at the height of Flanagan’s mayoral re-election campaign, Ford inserted language to ensure he would not be beholden to political candidates and officials. He requested a “political activity prohibition clause” specifying that the fire chief “not engage in any political activity … contributing financially … supporting the candidacy of individuals seeking elective office.”

Looking to protect himself, Ford also added a six-month termination clause to his Sept. 13 proposal: “… The fire chief will be afforded a six-month notice of termination should a successor agreement not be reached, or the mayor decides not to renew the fire chief’s contract,” the language read.

Flanagan said City Administrator Shawn Cadime met with Ford on Sept. 15, “to negotiate a contract,” offering the meeting as proof the city responded seriously to Ford’s renewal request. Flanagan said the city first had a contract offer from him on Sept. 13. “We’re at the bargaining table two days after he submits his offer to us. If he submits his offer to us before that we would have sat down with him earlier,” Flanagan said, failing to mention Ford’s August proposal.

“I believe they reached an agreement on all of the terms, if not all except for one or two items,” Flanagan said, although the mayor never detailed why Ford was not offered a contract in September.

On Sept. 29, when Ford became a finalist in Brookline, he met with the mayor, who already knew about his candidacy. Flanagan said he told Ford he “absolutely wanted him here.”

But, Flanagan said he told Ford that Brookline did not have the funding challenges of Fall River, and “whatever you decide to do, I fully understand and I will not have any ill regard toward you if you take the job.”

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But Flanagan’s assurances came too late for Ford.

“That’s accurate,” Ford said of his Sept. 29 discussion with the mayor. “However, at that point it was 65 days after our initial conversation.”

Flanagan, however, defended the process.

He said the six-month written notice of intent to renew the contract is designed to trigger the negotiating process for a successor contract. He said negotiations the administration took proved his intentions to retain Ford.

But Ford disagrees. He said he pointed out to Cadime that Flanagan could “wait six months until Nov. 19 to tell me I wasn’t getting a new contract. And I didn’t believe it was the spirit behind the six-month requirement.”

When the shocking news broke Oct. 12 that Ford had accepted the Brookline chief’s job, he answered myriad questions related to his departure with stock answers: “The timing is right.” He’d begun a “fact-finding mission” to gauge his job credentials.

Those answers were true, he later admitted, but only this week was he willing to publicly tell another side of the story.

Ford had said months ago, off the record, that Fall River “didn’t force me out” when months flew by without a new contract. “They forced me to make a decision,” he had said.

“So tell me why he didn’t do it? There’s only one reason,” Ford said, alluding to the unusual ascension of Michael Coogan. It was unprecedented in Fall River to elevate a fire lieutenant to chief.

Regarding Coogan himself, Ford offered: “I’ve got nothing to say.”

“I’m very happy where I am,” Ford said of his job in Brookline. “It’s a wonderful community. The people are great. Of course, I miss my guys.”